Monday, March 01, 2010

Google Maps and the Simile Exhibit Widget

Today I'm showcasing a few maps that are using Simile Exhibit. Simile Exhibit lets you create web pages with advanced text search and filtering functionalities, with interactive maps, timelines, and other visualizations.

"Exhibit enables you to create html pages with dynamic exhibits of data collections without resorting to complex database and server-side technologies. The collections can be searched and browsed using faceted browsing."

In short it is an awesome tool for displaying large sets of data on a Google Map with advanced filtering options.

Irish TD'sThis is by far the most sophisticated of the examples and really shows the power of Simile Exhibit to great effect.

This Google Map shows members of the Irish Dail (parliament). Dail TDs are shown on the map by small map markers which are actually small photographs of the TDs. Each TD is shown at the location of their Dail Constituency. If you click on a photograph you can get information on the TD and links to their website etc.

However it is in the data filtering that this map really excels. You can select to filter the members shown on the map in a variety of ways. For example you can view TDs by sex, age range, number of terms served and political party.

The map's creator, Dublin Streams, has even written a great article about his experience of creating a Google Maps mashup using Simile Exhibit.

Billionaires in HistoryI bet you'd like to know where all the world's billionaires live. I can't tell you that but this map can show you where they all come from. Hmm, mostly the USA.

US Cities by PopulationThis Google Maps mashup shows you the major population centers in the USA. The larger the circle on the map the larger the density of population. New Yorkers sure can breed.

Flags of the WorldThis simple demo of Exhibit shows the flags of the world on Google Maps.